To be honest,
in matters like contending for the Li Palace Primordial Source, whether one's personal strength is formidable does hold a certain advantage, but that's all it is—this advantage isn't very significant. Unless you possess the ability to suppress all heroes, stand alone under heaven with no equal, the hope of seizing the Li Palace Primordial Source is particularly slim.
Throughout the ages of heaven and earth, whenever a supreme treasure of the world emerges, those who ultimately seize it never rely on bare-handed, blind scrambling. After all, the strength of a single individual, no matter how great, has its limits. You can deal with one person, ten, a hundred, a thousand, even ten thousand enemies... but what about a hundred thousand? A million?
Moreover, those gathered at the Li Palace Primordial Source this time are either Great Dao Ancestors or Original Sin Patriarchs—either this mighty overlord or that hegemonic ruler. They are all grandmasters from various eras throughout the ages, each possessing unfathomable strength. No one dares claim to be stronger than another.
Who the Li Palace Primordial Source ultimately falls to depends first on divination, second on strategic layout, and only third on strength.
For instance, many Patriarchs this time were able to divine that this Li Palace Primordial Source would affect the Original Sin Cataclysm.
But what specific impact the Li Palace Primordial Source would have on the Original Sin Cataclysm—perhaps many could not divine that.
However,
it does not mean no one could divine it.
There must be those who succeeded.
Possibly, whether the Li Palace Primordial Source contains the Spirit of Original Sin, what situation would unfold after the Spirit of Original Sin emerges, what exactly the so-called 'Li Palace transformation' refers to... all these things could be divined.
Once divined, one could then lay out a strategy—a Cosmic Layout, a Yin-Yang Layout, a Life-Death Layout, even a Karma Layout or a Fate Layout.
A true master might not need to lift a finger at all, might not even need to show their face. Through divination and strategic layout alone, they could achieve their desired goal.
What was Old Ancestor Green Robe scheming so hard to stir chaos for? It was both to disrupt the layouts others had set and, simultaneously, his own layout of chaos.
Yet,
the number of those who had laid out strategies targeting this Li Palace Primordial Source was certainly in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. For Green Robe Ancestor to disrupt the situation so easily was unlikely; someone would surely step forward to stop him.
Sure enough,
just as Green Robe Ancestor was growing complacent and the situation on-site was descending into greater chaos, a voice suddenly rang out.
"Truly, with no tiger in the mountain, the monkey proclaims himself king!"
The voice was vast and boundless. As it arrived, it rolled like thunder, shaking the entire Li Palace space as if it were trembling slightly. It also shook the all-pervading Breath of Original Sin into restless churning and twisted the pervading the skies Light of Original Sin.
A master!
The owner of this voice was absolutely a master.
This was everyone's first impression.
Merely by the imposing might of his voice, he could shake the all-pervading Original Sin—this alone proved the voice's owner was unfathomably deep, definitely an Original Sin expert.
The crowd looked toward the source of the sound and saw a figure slowly approaching the Li Palace Vortex from the distant void.
It was an elder.
An elder dressed in gray robes, holding a walking staff.
The elder's face was full of dignity, weathered by the ages, and his eyes were especially turbid.
He walked through the air. His figure seemed frail, yet it contained formidable Original Sin power. Pure, dense Breath of Original Sin swirled around him, as if indistinguishable from himself. Each step he took seemed to influence the all-pervading Breath of Original Sin.
Could it be an Original Sin Dharmakaya that had merged with Original Sin?
No!
It was not!
Could it be an Original Sin Self that represents Original Sin?
No!
Nor that.
Could it be an Original Sin Essence that equals Original Sin?
No!
Also not.
Could it be yet another Original Sin True Body that *is* Original Sin?
No!
Not an Original Sin True Body.
Because the elder's every word and deed, every breath, even a single glance seemed to influence the all-pervading Original Sin.
This was a Child of Original Sin!
Only a Child of Original Sin who had merged with True Blood of Original Sin could possess such terrifying influence.
If the elder were merely a Child of Original Sin, it wouldn't have caused Lord Rat, Divine Calculator, and over a dozen other Original Sin True Bodies to reveal looks of shock. After all, Eight-Armed Yama was also a Child of Original Sin. They did not fear Eight-Armed Yama, so naturally they wouldn't fear other Children of Original Sin.
The true reason for their shocked expressions was that they could all tell this elder who had appeared was not his true body, but an external incarnation.
In other words,
the elder's existence was that of an external incarnation that had merged with True Blood of Original Sin.
A true body that had merged with True Blood of Original Sin and an external incarnation that had merged with True Blood of Original Sin—these were two entirely different concepts.
A true body that merged with True Blood of Original Sin, no matter how powerful, was just that.
But an external incarnation that merged with True Blood of Original Sin was different, because behind that external incarnation lay a true body.
Seeing the elder, many people's first thought was: Could this elder be someone who seized a drop of True Blood of Original Sin back in the day, or obtained one by chance? His true body didn't dare merge with it, so as a precaution, he first merged the True Blood with his external incarnation—and succeeded.
Soon, everyone realized this line of thinking didn't hold up.
It wasn't that True Blood of Original Sin couldn't be merged into an external incarnation, but that after a successful merger, anyone would abandon their true body and then seize the external incarnation to make it their new true body.
The reason was simple: if True Blood of Original Sin was merged into an external incarnation, one's focus would inevitably shift toward the external incarnation in the future, neglecting the true body—putting the cart before the horse, leading to endless future troubles.
Moreover, no matter how powerful an external incarnation was, it was still just an external incarnation, like a puppet without a soul. Merging True Blood of Original Sin into an external incarnation would be a reckless waste of a treasure, utterly unable to unleash the greatest wonders of the True Blood, no different from squandering it.
Therefore,
everyone believed that even if someone initially merged True Blood of Original Sin into an external incarnation as a precaution, they would inevitably seize it to become their true body later. At the very least, all the Original Sin Patriarchs present would do so.
If that was the case, why was this elder still an external incarnation that had merged with True Blood of Original Sin?
There was only one answer.
The elder's true body was sufficiently powerful, so powerful that he didn't even regard True Blood of Original Sin as significant. This meant the elder's true body might have long since merged with True Blood of Original Sin, perhaps even more than that.
Thinking of this, the Original Sin Patriarchs present felt even more complex emotions.
What True Blood of Original Sin signified, no one was unclear. If it weren't so, those who merged with it wouldn't be called Children of Original Sin.
And now this elder who had abruptly appeared—even his external incarnation had merged with True Blood of Original Sin. His true body was ninety percent likely to have also merged with True Blood of Original Sin, and very possibly more than that.
This couldn't help but make people sigh—sigh that comparisons are odious, and sigh at the disparity where some have too little while others drown in excess.
So many Original Sin Patriarchs were present, unable to obtain even a single drop of True Blood of Original Sin no matter how they sought it, yet this elder's damn external incarnation had merged with it. How could that not infuriate people?
Similarly,
Lord Rat and Divine Calculator were even more incensed. Although the two of them hadn't seized True Blood of Original Sin the moment the Daoless Age opened, they both later stole and schemed to obtain a drop. Yet, neither dared merge with it, fearing they couldn't control it, and ultimately had to give up.
They didn't dare merge it into their true bodies, nor even dared to experiment with their external incarnations.
It wasn't that they feared losing an external incarnation, but that they feared wasting that hard-won drop of True Blood of Original Sin.
Thinking that this elder had even merged True Blood of Original Sin into his external incarnation, the two of them naturally felt a sour taste in their hearts.